Hi, I am wondering if the council is allowed to charge for transport to out of borough daycare service if they are unable to provide anything within the borough. From an education point of view they can’t but as he is moving into the social care I’m unclear on the law. My impression is that each council tries it on unless told they are breaking the law. Thanks in advance

Unfortunately, like yourself, I am familiar with being misinformed by my local authority, Herefordshire Council.

I believe your understanding is correct if he is an adult.

As far as I am aware, if he is moving into social care, his care package should be adequate and included things like transport to activities, services and their costs; even outside the area, although they may try to charge a contribution to the cost.
Further, the local authority has a duty to assess for eligibility and needs; however, many councils have policies regarding transport, which can conflict with the law.

I would suggest asking for your local authorities policy regarding social care and transport if they have one.
I have asked my council for policies in the past, when they have claimed to have one in place, only to be informed later they hadn’t actually got the policy they previously claimed to have.

I’m one of the information and advice officers from the learning disability helpline. A lot of people are worried about transport costs to day services and we often hear about this from families and carers.

The main advice is to check the transport policy of your particular local authority. You should be able to find it on their website.

If someone goes to a service so that their eligible support needs can be met, then it follows that transport to that service is also a support need. The detail of someone’s care and support plan is important because it should cover how they will get to and from the service. If it doesn’t you could question this.

If the local authority has a policy which means that someone is charged for transport to a service, then you could argue that this is a disability related expense (DRE) and ask for it to be considered as such in the financial assessment which determines how much someone contributes to their care costs.

Local councils should make an assessment of your disability-related expenditure and allow you to keep enough benefit to meet any needs not being met by the council. The local authority needs to take into account any Disability Related Expenses (DRE) you have when carrying out the financial assessment. The DRE is any additional expenses incurred because of your disability. This can include laundry costs due to incontinence, high heating bills (if, for example, you have poor blood circulation), accessible taxi fares costs, equipment, essential dietary requirements costs, special clothing (because of wear and tear), internet costs, therapies. You should try and make a full list of all your disability related expenses if you are having a local authority assessment. Any requested contribution to costs needs to be reasonably practicable for you to be able to pay.